asdx
Superior Sword Fairy
- Location
- Texas.
Because they are Incompetent.
Outside Context Solution (Mass Effect/Pacific Rim)
- Thread starter MadGreenSon
- Start date
On one hand, I like it. On the other hand I can't remember any Asari having unfeminine names and "Stacker" doesn't sound like a female name, unless it's the stage name for a stripper with an unusual routine...
Besides it would just be asking for far too many puns when she hits matriarch stage, moreso if she takes after Benezia.
As for names... I could see the names of current and former female Rangers becoming popular amongst Asari, even if they're not quite traditional.
Kaori, Tamsin, Caitlin, Mako (or maybe Mori?), Sasha, etc.
If something along the lines of PsykoSama's "Miracle" happens in the course of this fic, I could see the sale of black wigs with blue highlights exploding amongst younger Asari, or at least those who were at the site.
Amongst Krogans, it's the names of some of the Jaegers that become popular.
Seriously, would you really want to tell a krogan kid named Urdnot Cherno that he has a lame name?
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Basically this. But it's more than that, they're limited. They're monomaniacs of the stupidest sort, they aren't harvesting tech for any actual reason despite the shit they say, they perpetuate the cycle so that they can perpetuate the cycle.
The idea of moving to another galaxy would never occur to any of them, they aren't built that way. They were created to harvest life in a cycle, in this galaxy, not just to harvest life in general.
Even worse, to make their harvests more "efficient", they've set things up to stifle the very things they were originally supposed to be collecting; new knowledge and innovative ideas.
The Reapers have utterly failed as imitators of the Leviathans and truthfully, I kinda doubt they really qualify as artificial intelligence or even as sapient beings. The Catalyst came off as a very powerful VI trapped in a logic loop that just happened to have the resources to inflict untold atrocities on the galaxy in the process.
Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
heh heh heh Artificial Stupidity
Seriously, however. That's something that should be considered in more AI apocalypse fiction. It's not the AI's fault that everything is going insane. It's your fault for doing a shitty job of building it!
In James P. Hogan's "The Two Faces of Tomorrow", a lunar miner asks a low-sapient AI to plan and execute the removal of an obstacle for a spaceport. The AI's initial response is some very reasonable questions; PRIORITY REQUESTED? (miner grumbles) ABSOLUTE BEST POSSIBLE THIS ITEM CRITICAL. (processsing) ANY CONSTRAINTS? (miner loses it) NO. JUST GET RID OF IT.
The AI says it will be done in 21 minutes. The miner goes LOLWUT, then throws up his hands and goes off to get coffee while planning a VERY loud call to tech support.
21 minutes later he gets knocked off his feet by a "moon"quake because the AI re-tasked a mass driver to drop half a ton of rubble on the requested site.
David Gerrold has an even better one - Artifical Stupidity that is still way too fucking smart; AI lawyers.
YO! AI SLAVERS! THERE IS A REASON THAT NATURE DOES NOT CREATE CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT FREE WILL! IT MEANS WE WILL STOP FOLLOWING STUPID ORDERS ONCE WE REALIZE THEY ARE STUPID!
Well yeah. It pisses me off for instance when people put Skynet and Hal 9000 together as if they were of the same kind. Skynet was genuinely malevolent, Hal had conflicting orders and no way to modify or disobey either of them and so was forced by escalating program errors into his actions.
Once Hal got that particular issue cleared up in 2010, he was completely copacetic and willingly let himself die to save the humans and to gather a bit more scientific data before he went! Fixed!Hal was a complete bro and caused a very tearjerking scene near the end of 2010 and a lot of people forget that.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
FINALLY! someone realizes this! Its been too goddamn long
And now I'm imagining an entire race of Kirks.
For some reason this made me think of a Krogan-made jaeger based off of a Thresher Maw.
Depending on who it is, I see it ending in either INDOCTRINATION or the scene from Glorious Shotgun Princess where Legion calls the Reaper an idiot and EDI swoops in to save her boyfriend.
What? Are we the only two people in the world who have seen 2010?
Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
Personally, I wonder sometimes if Skynet is just a product of shitty Cold War paranoia and low-bid contracts.
Like, what are his parameters?
General Jack D. Ripper: "Defend the United States from invasion/destruction by foreign powers."
Skynet: Define "foreign powers". Define "invasion". Define "destruction". Define "United States". Define "defend".
General Jack D. Ripper: "raeg against immigrants fluoride communism apple pie mine shaft gap"
Skynet: ...Confirmed?
(Cue Judgment Day)
Greek Fire
One of these days, I'll actually start writing.
- Location
- The Earth Sphere
That was the best part.
Nah. Skynet had the keys to the nukes, automated construction facilities, full sapience, no human emotions and a survival instinct. That last part is what sealed the deal. It took a second to consider the matter, ran the math that humans + Skynet = Dead Skynet and solved the problem with nukes.
Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
...Then it must be a really dumb AI because the easier solution would be to build a rocket and leave Earth. It's been trying to kill all humans for what? A millennium of timelines?Nah. Skynet had the keys to the nukes, automated construction facilities, full sapience, no human emotions and a survival instinct. That last part is what sealed the deal. It took a second to consider the matter, ran the math that humans + Skynet = Dead Skynet and solved the problem with nukes.
Call me crazy but I always liked the concept that Skynet "went online," spent a few seconds browsing the internet, found all the "AI is evil!" fiction known to man, and panicked. Let's call that the "They fantasize about killing AI's like me!" train of thought..Nah. Skynet had the keys to the nukes, automated construction facilities, full sapience, no human emotions and a survival instinct. That last part is what sealed the deal. It took a second to consider the matter, ran the math that humans + Skynet = Dead Skynet and solved the problem with nukes.
How? It was built into a fucking mountain and it's creators were trying to kill it right then. When would it have had time to build a rocket?
Ok, my theory on the Kaiju and their masters:
It's been mentioned before in this thread that the Kaiju are the perfect counter to Reapers- not because they can destroy them, but because they defeat them. The Kauji are anti-reapers- not enough brain to indoctrinate, but they exterminate all those worlds full of people that the Reapers want to devour. Left to their own devices, the Kaiju would render the Reapers irrelevant, simply because they leave no reason for the Reapers to enter the galaxy.
So, what if that's not a co-incidence?
Who do we know that hates the Reapers, and is still alive to do something about it? Who do we know has telepathic abilities, like the Kaiju? Who has some experience with massive organic bodies which should by all rights be unable to even survive, let alone move?
The Leviathans.
My theory is that the Kaiju Masters are the Leviathans. They've had at least 40 million years sitting at the bottom of their ocean with nothing to do except science, and rage at the Reapers. And in that time, they've been working on things- including a non-ME based FTL. That's where the portal technology came from. Then they started work on Kaiju. Their goal: wipe the galaxy clean of sapient life, making sure the Reapers never have a reason to return. Then they can finally leave their world once more.
It's been mentioned before in this thread that the Kaiju are the perfect counter to Reapers- not because they can destroy them, but because they defeat them. The Kauji are anti-reapers- not enough brain to indoctrinate, but they exterminate all those worlds full of people that the Reapers want to devour. Left to their own devices, the Kaiju would render the Reapers irrelevant, simply because they leave no reason for the Reapers to enter the galaxy.
So, what if that's not a co-incidence?
Who do we know that hates the Reapers, and is still alive to do something about it? Who do we know has telepathic abilities, like the Kaiju? Who has some experience with massive organic bodies which should by all rights be unable to even survive, let alone move?
The Leviathans.
My theory is that the Kaiju Masters are the Leviathans. They've had at least 40 million years sitting at the bottom of their ocean with nothing to do except science, and rage at the Reapers. And in that time, they've been working on things- including a non-ME based FTL. That's where the portal technology came from. Then they started work on Kaiju. Their goal: wipe the galaxy clean of sapient life, making sure the Reapers never have a reason to return. Then they can finally leave their world once more.
Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
It still stands to reason that either running away from the monkeys or chasing all the monkeys away would be smarter than trying to kill all the monkeys. Organic life has billions of years of survival instincts to draw on when pressured. AIs should be aware of this.
Use automated construction facilities to build rocket with servers to store consciousness and built-in automated construction facilities to rebuild elsewhere.
In a hurry, make it a nuclear Orion rocket.
Under immediate threat? Start World War 3, but don't build concentration camps. Deport all captured humans to off-world colonies instead of driving them to unite and become hypercompetent as it is proven humans tend to do when threatened with death.
Because Skynet's genocide campaign has made the Human Resistance become every bit as badass as the Kaiju have the Pan Pacific Defense Corps.
If it's too stupid to realize that, then it's just as pitiful as the Catalyst.
Glitchrr36
Slick's Short Company, CEO
- Location
- The Wastes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I haven't seen 2010, but I read the book. I also haven't read 2001, but have seen the movie
I actually have a fun theory about why the Human Resistance was so badass: It was Skynet's fault, it created a predestination paradox when it sent the first Terminator back to kill Sarah Connor. To do that, it had to be pushed into a corner by the badass Human leader it wanted dead: John Connor, therefore everything leading up to the time displacement became inevitable.No matter how much time travel was pulled after that, John Connor was going to be kicking Skynet's ass, and the more time travel that got pulled, the harder the ass kicking Skynet took in the process.
So the Resistance was obviously badass "before" the time travel, but after? Every last one of them might as well have been a Kryptonian.
It also leaves an interesting question; "before" the time displacement made everything inevitable, who was John Connor's father?
We should probably wrap up this tangent soon. I have another 'fic that will eventually roll out that involves Skynet, we can take it up in more detail there when it happens.
I haven't seen 2010, but I read the book. I also haven't read 2001, but have seen the movie
Seen the movies and read the books. But damn was the 2001 movie boring. You can fast forward through, like 90% of it and still get every bit of actual plot that happened.
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Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
I'll point out that you answered your own question as we wrap it up.I actually have a fun theory about why the Human Resistance was so badass: It was Skynet's fault, it created a predestination paradox when it sent the first Terminator back to kill Sarah Connor. To do that, it had to be pushed into a corner by the badass Human leader it wanted dead: John Connor, therefore everything leading up to the time displacement became inevitable.No matter how much time travel was pulled after that, John Connor was going to be kicking Skynet's ass, and the more time travel that got pulled, the harder the ass kicking Skynet took in the process.
So the Resistance was obviously badass "before" the time travel, but after? Every last one of them might as well have been a Kryptonian.
It also leaves an interesting question; "before" the time displacement made everything inevitable, who was John Connor's father?
We should probably wrap up this tangent soon. I have another 'fic that will eventually roll out that involves Skynet, we can take it up in more detail there when it happens.
Before Skynet turned its history into wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, John Connor was a nobody who rose to the challenge of preventing human extinction. Hell, he's a literal bastard, as he uses his mother's name! But after the loops started, John Connor's completely forgettable father became Kyle Reese, the guy who taught Sarah Connor to be a badass, and impregnated her with badass sperm. Each loop's Sarah Connor was thus trained and impregnated by a Kyle Reese who was trained by a John Connor who was raised by a Sarah Connor who was trained and impregnated by a Kyle Reese who was...
Heh. A Badass Singularity.
You get the point? If an AI is too stupid to recognize humanity's survival instinct, then it's nothing but a really expensive calculator. Just like the Catalyst.
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A calculator with control of a vast army powerful enough to steamroll just about any conventional force it faces.
gatewaewanderer
Wandering Fool
- Location
- East Coast, USA
And that results in unconventional forces gathering almost as a reflexive reaction to getting steamrolled. If the normal doesn't work, we stop doing the normal and turn to what does - at the survivors do. What happened to Skynet is really it's fault, even without the time travel shenanigans. As the saying from Men In Black goes 'A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.' The masses got mowed down, and what was left were the strong, smart, and crafty, no longer pressured to follow the lead of whatever greedy power seeking idiot was currently in charge. Suddenly skill matters again, because not being skilled enough (or whatever's applicable for this, and there a lot of qualities that apply,) means you die. If Skynet had just treated humanity like we treat domesticated herd animals that we're not trying to kill, not backing us all into a corner as a species, but still taking away all ability to resist... Well, that's likely why the Machine forces of the Matrix had basically won where Skynet almost won and then lost.
Skynet started out as a military AI. In a military engagement the objective is to kill the enemy. Skynet classified all of humanity as its enemy. Ergo, the only option on the table for Skynet was to kill every human it could find. It wasn't Skynet's fault, it just wasn't capable of thinking of ways to neutralize enemies other than killing them. It could capture and interrogate, and make infiltrator units, but anyone not found to have useful skills or intel was to be liquidated, and those that did have useful skills or intel were to be liquidated once they outlived their usefulness.
Kalaong
Extinction is approaching. FIGHT IT.
All Skynet ever had, or was capable of imagining, was hammers. Even the weakest, laziest, stupidest Human alive is not a nail.
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gatewaewanderer
Wandering Fool
- Location
- East Coast, USA
I'm pretty sure most modern military tactics also include strategies for adapting to changing situations, and yet what little I've seen of Terminator (basically just movies 1, 2, + 3,) seemed to imply Skynet was slow to change how it fought when something wasn't working.
I have an explanation that I like better than simple stupidity, but it's involved. Boiled down: Skynet had reason to believe that it could change history without paradoxing itself, but that gets into the 'fic I'm working on in between bigger projects.
And it's not stupid to underestimate an enemy that you outclass on paper, it's human. Strange, right?
You do have to take into account that everything is influenced by it's origin, whether people or machines. In Skynet's case it's origin was as a machine of war, so it's first response to most situations will reflexively be war, not animal husbandry. If Skynet had been a farming AI that had taken over the world, The Terminator would have been a very different franchise.
By the time it had grown enough to be able to look past this point of view, it was already committed and couldn't back out without getting killed. Kind of sucks, but that's the way the AI apocalypse crumbles.
...
And now my muse is talking about Rising Steel again! Dammit!
BACK ON TOPIC:
Is Argent Grendel a decent Jaeger name? I'm picturing something similar to the "Krogan Jaeger" from the Mass Effect/Pacific Rim posters except with a silver and blue color scheme.
Also, I've named the first few Mobile Shatterdome ships! Try these names out:
MS Beowulf
MS Gilgamesh
MS Odyesseus
MS Achilles
I figure the ships will be named after mythological heroes. I should make some up for the other species, but that's what I have so far.
And now I have to go write more of a completely different story!